President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed Israel’s expected military retaliation against Iran in their first call in over a month Oct. 9, as the administration seeks to convince its closest Middle East ally not to hit Tehran’s oil facilities or nuclear sites.
Russia has made slow but steady gains in recent weeks against Ukraine but at a steep cost—the bloodiest month in the nearly three-year war, U.S. officials said Oct. 9. Casualties from the offensives in the Donbas have brought Russia’s total number of dead and wounded to over 600,000, according to officials granted anonymity to brief reporters at the Pentagon on the course of the war.
As the Hurricane Ride Out team at Moody Air Force Base reviewed their forecasts ahead of Hurricane Helene, a team member came to a shocking realization. As a direct hit seemed more and more certain, the winds the base was likely to face were projected to be so strong that Moody’s emergency operation building was not rated to survive them. The team needed to evacuate their own emergency center.
As software has become essential to how the U.S. fights and wins wars, how the Department of Defense goes about modernizing and updating that software has become crucial too. Learn more about how faster software modernization is tying the military together, breaking through bureaucracy along the way.
The rise of great power competition means that American soil is at risk, the newly-minted head of U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) warned Oct. 9—requiring an updated mindset as well as better defenses against “non-kinetic” threats and operations in the “gray zone.”
U.S. Air Force officials at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia are looking at installing anti-drone nets to help protect F-22 Raptor stealth fighters on the flightline. This comes nearly a year after the base was subjected to waves of still-mysterious drone incursions.
The Army could more than double the number of soldiers with expertise in space operations if top brass approves a proposal by Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) to implement the service’s new(ish) space vision, according to SMDC officials.
Fresh from “ringing the bell” to announce its success in hitting fiscal year 2024 recruiting targets, the Air Force’s recruiting enterprise is shifting its attention to the future with a major restructuring effort aimed at streamlining communication and making it easier to shift or share resources between teams.
The U.S. military is using one of its main data analytics and common operational picture tools as part of its response efforts to aid in Hurricane Helene relief. Several Active-duty Components, defense agencies, and the National Guard are aiding in the relief efforts as requested by the states affected under what’s known as “defense support to civil authorities,” which allow the military to be employed domestically when asked.
The Air Force Research Laboratory is interested in developing autonomous capabilities for analyzing operations and directing courses of action to uncrewed aircraft, according to a request for information issued Oct. 9. To ensure robotic platforms continue to adhere to mission commands and are able to independently make reasonable decisions in future battles, AFRL says it needs to develop autonomous software beyond just functionality to also address battlefield awareness and decision-making.
France kicked off the development of an air-combat drone that will serve as an unmanned wingman for the country’s Rafale fighter, part of a contract with Dassault Aviation to start work on an upgrade package for the aircraft.
The space industry is waiting for the Space Force and intelligence community to come to an agreement over buying commercial satellite imagery and related analysis—a fight, some say, that is preventing troops from making the fullest use of orbital capabilities.
Air Force 2nd Lt. Madison Marsh, who is also Miss America 2024, got her first bite experience during a visit Oct. 8 to the 37th Training Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. Marsh, the first military service member to be crowned the title of Miss America, donned the K-9 bite sleeve and took part in dog training exercises with Staff Sgt. Adam Gagnon, a military working dog course trainer with the 341st Training Squadron, and learned what training military working dogs and their handlers is all about.
